Statefulness = "Processness"...?

[Jay Nelson]

Vlad wrote:

 > So liveness shouldn't affect fields where the user is
 > expected to enter data.

Active screens are useful for directing the user.  3D
elements are just adornments, but a ticking sound that
gets faster could spur the user to action, a changing of color
could indicate a slider bar effect is being responded to,
or other feedback may be extremely useful in a next
generation display.

Think of progress bars and remember when they were
a big improvement that let people know the computer
wasn't just locked up.  Now think of the animated GIFs
that were used for the same purpose, but didn't help at
all (my browser is still running, but the server is locked).

I agree that you don't want unexpected things to happen
while the user is concentrating, but simple suggestions
are very useful (think dialtone, busy signals, TV static on
non-existent channels, etc.).

jay